Less than 200 people per day (on average) were allowed out of Gaza via Israel in the first half of 2013, compared to 26,000 in the equivalent period of 2000, before the second Intifada. Less than one truckload of goods per day (on average) exited Gaza in the first half of 2013, compared to 38 during the first half of 2007, before the imposition of the blockade. Kerem Shalom, the only functioning official crossing for goods to and from Gaza, was closed for almost half of the time (52 days) in the first four months of 2013. The volume of construction materials that entered Gaza via the tunnels in 2013 was over three times the amount allowed through the Kerem Shalom crossing. Access to land within 300 meters from the fence surrounding Gaza is generally prohibited and access to farming areas several hundred meters beyond is risky. Fishermen are allowed to access less than one third of the fishing areas allocated to them under the Oslo Accords: six out of 20 nautical miles. 57% of Gaza households are food insecure and about 80% are aid recipients. Over a third (34.5%) of those able and willing to work are unemployed (PCBS) - one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. A longstanding electricity deficit, compounded by shortages in fuel needed to run Gaza’s power plant, results in power outages of up to 12 hours a day. Only a quarter of households receive running water every day, during several hours only. Over 90% of the water extracted from the Gaza aquifer is unsafe for human consumption. Some 90 million litres of untreated and partially treated sewage are dumped in the sea off the Gaza coast each day, creating public health hazards. Over 12,000 people are currently displaced due to their inability to reconstruct their homes, destroyed during hostilities. At least 230 Palestinian civilians have been killed and over 400 injured while working in tunnels between Gaza and Egypt used for the transfer of restricted goods, since June 2007.

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I am an Aussie traveller who currently lives in Turkey. Like most people I've been fed the Zionist narrative most of my life - and believed it. It wasn't until the invasion of Palestine by Israel in 2008 that I started to look into the history and the actual events of that time and before - well before. I was shocked! And so should we all be. Most of the articles here are but a minute collection from the media. Of everyday occurrences that most of us don't get to hear about; Nevertheless they should be told - and heard. I hope the stories here help to balance the narrative by main stream media and what it and Israel would have us all believe.